Hello, glad to join!

[DmG]

I have joined a forum of more year ago and is now very grateful for the exhaustive information and for all those inspiring messages which were placed here by all of you!

Two years ago i'm was starting shooting with cell-phone camera, year ago i have bought digital compact Nikon S600. In Russia Ricoh GRD or GX-series during that time were not on sale yet, only some of R-series.

One week ago i has learnt about GRDII presence on sale. I'm think:"Wow! What i waiting else?", and now one happy owner it is more! All compliments to GRDII are already told, and they - the absolutely truth, camera now is my lovely photo-friend. Has opened for itself RAW and now I feel much more free in processing

Pavel, you do a very good and important work, thank you and all blessings!

 

[odklizec]

Thanks for nice words DmG! I'm glad you found this little community useful!

Unfortunately, I'm a bit inactive in these days. My home laptop is currently useless for photo editing and to be honest, even the text editing is very uncomfortable on it. But the situation should improve very soon! I'm going to buy new computer so I should be back in full power and supply you with new amount of tips and tricks. I think the RAW editing is crucial for small sensor cameras. It can unleash their true power. And because my new laptop will be a Macbook, I should be able to discuss both WIN and MAC RAW solutions. As a long time (and already bored) WIN user, I really look forward to try something new

 

[DmG]

I'm thinking about MAC too, therefore it will be interesting to learn your opinion!

 

[Nicozoom]

For photography MAC is the thing!!!

 

[odklizec]

Yes, people say MAC is the best friend of photographer. I'm now struggling between macbook and macbook pro. As we all know, MACs are not the cheapest laptops and my budget is limited. So I'm tend to get the macbook with 4GB of RAM. However, the macbook display seems have a problem with significantly lower viewing angles and so degraded colors. This is a very bad thing for photo editing. I already saw the macbook in action, unfortunately, not while photo editing. So I cannot say how bad is the problem with viewing angles. However, the comparison photos from macbook vs. macbook pro review looks bad. In any case, I'm now looking for a good deal on ebay.

 

[DmG]

One of my friend have MacBook over 2 years, he used it for vector graphics, but photo images (scanned film) he processes on PC+AppleCinema on his job (certainly, he would prefer fully Apple set). He says that Apple Cinema the best display for processing of pictures, it shows natural colours, all details in shadows and highlights with all tone transitions, wide viewing angles and сomfortable for eyes. But I have nothing to tell about a MacBook Pro display.

 

[Nicozoom]

I work sometimes on a macbook pro, and the display is amazing, even better than my cinema display. ( also mac ).
The bad thing about the never macbooks and macbook pros are that the display is glossy, but I guees one get used to it.
My daugther s got a mac book, and it looks fine to me, but It can be it it a bit to slow for some things, but for smaller file sizes it is fine.
The problem can be harddisc space, so get some external discs.
I mostly use ligthroom, where most photographers use photoshop, but it it a very heavy program, so I just use it for a few corrections.

And another important thing is the ram, get as much as you can.

And it could be that Mac are expensive, but they last for years and there is a lot of time saved by not having to reinstall, run anti-virus software, and all the other things windows users have to deal with.

 

[Grus74]

If you don't have to get a laptop check out the iMacs as they give you somewhat more value for your money. Still, and this bugs me, you can't calibrate their screens

 

[odklizec]

Thanks for your valuable tips guys!

DmG:
I heard the cinema displays are very good. But I'm planing to use the macbook primarily without the external screen. Only in rare cases I might use my trusty samsung.

Nicozoom:
I personally like the glossy displays because the colors are (in my humble opinion) reproduced much better. The reflections might be a problem under certain conditions, but I'm using the laptop with glossy screen for last 4 years and I would not swap it for notebook with matte display anymore.

Sure, RAM and HDD are important factors, so I will start with 4GB and I already ordered a 500GB HDD replacement. Later I might probably add also the time capsule, which looks like a perfect backup solution. I like wireless and working solutions

Grus74:
iMac is nice, but I prefer portable solution.

I thought it will be Macbook with loads of software. Unfortunately, the company from which I expected to buy promised the availability "early last week", then in a "couple of days" and now they do not respond my emails anymore So I checked the ebay again and decided to go with MB Pro. There were some very good deals for 2.53 or even 2.66GHz MB Pro! Unfortunately, many of these auctions were UK only (how surprising) so I already lost few of them. It's very frustrating but the only thing I can probably do is be patient.